autumn Archives | Page 57 of 74

So in case you’ve been living under a rock or in a very remote location, you know that Thanksgiving is in less than a week. As in you better get your butt in gear and figure out what lovely dishes will be gracing your table (I’m mostly talking to myself here…). October flew by and now November is following suit. I feel like a broken record when I say this, but where the heck did the time go?

I actually planned on posting this bread recipe earlier in the week, with a separate Thanksgiving post to follow suit, but I started a new job and things have been a little crazy. So, I’m combining the two in case anyone still needs any gluten free/vegan Thanksgiving inspiration or a new loaf of bread to try. The bread recipe is listed first, followed by links to Thanksgiving-worthy dishes in the archives.

This bread is part of my ongoing experimentation with garbanzo bean flour. I found that it works much better for my tastes in savory applications like this one. This resulting loaf of bread is hearty and dense and reminds me a bit of soda bread. The first test was taken straight from the Flying Apron Baking Book and wasn’t necessarily meant for the blog. I was in the mood to bake bread and wanted to see how a new recipe turned out. The first test was a bit dry, dense, and incredibly underwhelming so I set about using my own baking instincts and tweaking the recipe. The second test was much more successful so I decided to share it with you here.

As I mentioned above, this bread is dense and toothsome. Thanks to the garbanzo and brown rice flours, it has a relatively high amount of protein/fiber so you don’t need much to fill you up. It comes together easily without much fuss and takes a nice long rest in the oven, giving you time to take a nap, watch Netflix, or maybe prepare dinner. Since it is gluten free/vegan, it is best eaten the day it is made, or within a couple of days. If you plan on keeping it longer, I recommend keeping it in either the fridge or the freezer and then warming it up in the toaster whenever you want to eat it. Or, you can make any dried out portions into breadcrumbs, croutons, or stuffing 🙂
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I have developed a bad habit involving forgetting to put away or use particular items . For instance, I’ve had my tape measure sitting by the door of my closet since I hung a shelf in it almost a month ago. Yet, there it sits. Wow, that was embarrassing to admit… When I do notice it, I think about needing to put it up, then twenty other thoughts enter my head and I move on. And there the lonely tape measure sits. I’m not sure why I do this sort of thing. Maybe there’s some psychological explanation for it. Or, maybe it’s laziness. Now that I think about it, I’m almost one hundred percent positive it’s laziness.

I’ve had sort of a similar experience with garbanzo bean flour. I bought some a while ago intending to try to experiment with it. But there it sat in the pantry. I think part of the reason for its neglect was that my first experience with it wasn’t pleasant. The raw dough tasted bean-y in the most unpleasant way possible. And, the finished product was not much better. This pretty much put me completely off of the flour. It was a shame because I had bought the Flying Apron’s Gluten Free & Vegan Baking Book right before that incident and many of the recipes relied on garbanzo flour.

I decided to read through the book again recently and make it a point to just go ahead and bake with the damn flour. I started off with the scones from that book, making a plain vanilla version that I dressed up with a rather simple glaze. They weren’t bad but they didn’t exactly have that true “scone” texture. They seemed like more of a soft biscotti or cookie, but overall they were pretty tasty. I was able to detect a slightly bean-y aftertaste but this is most likely because I’m so sensitive to the taste. I decided to attempt a tea cake next and share my own adaptation of it here with you. I’m still not completely sold on garbanzo flour, but I figured I would see what your opinions were if you’ve baked with it. I think it works well with assertive flavors (like citrus, spices, or chocolate) that will mask any bean-y flavors it may impart in baked goods.

This tea cake isn’t too complicated in terms of the ingredients needed. In the version in the book, the recipe only uses brown rice flour and garbanzo flour, but I found I needed to add a bit of arrowroot to help thicken the batter a bit. I added some thinly sliced pears to the top of the cake, but this was mostly for aesthetic reasons. If you leave the pears off, I would recommend making a simple lemon glaze for the top. Or, simply dust the top with a bit of powdered sugar. This makes 1 regular sized loaf but it would easily work in a few mini pans to make it more manageable. Store extra loaves in the freezer until needed.

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A Hearty Loaf of Bread + Thanksgiving Inspiration

Earl Grey Tea Cake